An Interview With Controversial Conservative Michael Quinn Sullivan

Michael Quinn Sulivan and Empower Texans handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars during 2014 state primaries.

Texas Tribune

Candidates backed by the most conservative wing of the Texas Republican Party were the big winners in March's state primaries. Support from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and local Tea Party groups have gotten much of the credit for those wins. But support from a conservative policy group called Empower Texans also helped carry the day.

The group's leader, Michael Quinn Sullivan, has taken some heat for what's been called his efforts to purify the GOP, working to get rid of Republicans he says aren’t sufficiently conservative.

Sullivan stopped by KUT to speak with Ben Philpott about what would be different in a Legislature run by his kind of Republicans.

"Generally the difference can be thought of a couple of ways," Sullivan says. "Number one, is this someone who is doing what they say? Is this someone who when they campaign, does that match with how they govern? Number two are these candidates who are going to pushing for the reforms they espouse. It's one thing to hold a view, but are they actually pushing the ball forward."

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Last week’s GOP primary showed the continued strength of the Tea Party in Texas. But it also showed a weakening of another stalwart Republican demographic: the businessperson. First, a disclaimer: The results don't prove anything definitive. One election does not a trend make. And it's not hard to find people who say the state's business leaders still have a large role in Republican Party politics. "I think the business community hasn't lost its voice," Rice University Political Science department chair Mark Jones says. "But its influence is much less then it was say 10 years ago."

Update: The Results Are In Election results are now in with between 99.95 and 100 percent of precincts counted statewide. Click Here for KUT's rundown of election night winners. Click Here to check out how Republicans voted across the state. Click Here to see results from the Democrats. One hundred percent of Travis County precincts have also reported results. But the final tallies might change just a tad because votes cast after 7 p.m. have not yet been included. The polls in Travis County were open late on Tuesday because of bad weather. Click Here for the latest from Travis County. Overall, the night turned out to be a good one for many Tea Party candidates. KUT's Ben Philpott takes a look at that:

The results are in for the 2014 Texas Primary Elections . We now know who most of the candidates will be in the November general election, but several statewide races are headed to a runoff on May 27. We've compiled a list of the top vote earners for the major statewide and Travis County races. The percentage of votes received (as of this writing) is shown next to each candidate's name. Races with an asterisk are heading to a runoff. STATEWIDE ELECTION RESULTS U.S....